Abstract
Highlighting the city of Lisbon as a case study, this chapter focuses on the pioneering role of the earliest geologists who introduced Geology, its concepts and its methods as a key tool in the search for drinkable water. This paradigmatic change occurred in the 1850s, due to the work of Carlos Ribeiro, Chief Engineer of the Department of Mines in the Ministry of Public Works, and the first director of the Kingdom’s Geological Commission, founded in 1857. Invited to submit his advice about the plans for the Lisbon water supply, Ribeiro was convinced that only detailed geological fieldwork could provide the knowledge for accurately predicting the occurrence of groundwater. For this purpose, he carried out detailed lithological and structural studies on the northern and eastern ranges of the city, subsequently becoming able both to redefine and map the main stratigraphic units and to characterize those with better quality aquifer properties. The knowledge and experience generated by this pioneering work was followed by several contributions by Nery Delgado, his right-hand man, and by their colleague, renowned geologist Paul Choffat. Taken together, these works may be considered as the true precursors of modern hydrogeological studies in Portugal.
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Notes
- 1.
Carlos Ribeiro studied artillery and military engineering at the Royal Navy Academy, the Army School, and, later on, at the Polytechnic Academy of Oporto. After 1845, he started working as a civil and mining engineer in the Public Works Company of Portugal and in the Farrobo and Damásio Company, concessionaire of the coal mines of Cape of Mondego and Buçaco. Between 1852 and 1857, Ribeiro was head of the Bureau of Mines, of the new Ministry of Public Works, Commerce and Industry. After this period, and until his death in 1882, he directed the Geological Commission of the Kingdom. His prior geological sketches formed the groundworks for the first complete geological map of Portugal (1:500,000), which was the primary goal of the Commission, published in 1876. As a researcher with multiple talents, Ribeiro left a huge amount of work in the applied areas of engineering, geology, hydrology and mining. His interest in prehistoric archaeology was also the focus of a famous controversy about the existence of humankind in Tertiary times. While on a mission to several European countries (1858), he became acquainted with the most prominent Earth Sciences experts of the time, starting regular scientific correspondence with many of them. Ribeiro was also a member of many Portuguese and foreign scientific societies and was distinguished with several national and international awards (Delgado 1905).
- 2.
A military engineer from the Polytechnic School of Lisbon and the Army School (1856), Nery Delgado joined the Geological Commission of the Kingdom in 1857, becoming its Director after the death of Carlos Ribeiro. His huge body of scientific work in the fields of Palaeozoic stratigraphy and palaeontology, applied geology and prehistoric archaeology was internationally recognized and recorded in many publications. Together with Ribeiro, he signed the first full geological maps of the country (1:500,000), presented at international congresses, where he represented Portugal. Delgado was a member of several national and international scientific institutions and maintained a close correspondence with many well-known names from foreign institutes and universities (Choffat 1909).
- 3.
Born in Switzerland, Paul Choffat graduated in Chemistry and Natural Sciences from the University of Zurich. Following an invitation from Carlos Ribeiro, who met him in Paris during the International Geological Congress of 1878, he travelled to Portugal with the purpose of studying the local Mesozoic stratigraphy and palaeontology. Due to work and personal health issues, he remained in Portugal for nearly 40 years. During this period of intensive scientific research at the Geological Commission, he authored a vast bibliography, with extensive monographs on the Jurassic and Cretaceous formations. Besides stratigraphy and geological cartography, his work also included updated and rigorous studies in the fields of tectonics, hydrology, applied geology and mineral resources (Rocha et al. 2008). Choffat was an internationally reputed geologist, a member of several scientific societies and an authority on Mesozoic stratigraphy.
- 4.
According to Bruno and Inácio, this great hydraulic work “was not, in terms of a solution to the lack of water problem of Lisbon, an investment with any medium or long-term planning perspective” (2014: 10). This was subsequently reflected in the need to reinforce the capacity in the late nineteenth century.
- 5.
Born in France, Pezerat studied civil engineering and architecture in Paris (1821). After spending some years working in Brazil and Algeria, he came to Portugal, in the late 1840s, where he initiated a collaboration with the Municipality of Lisbon. In 1852, the Municipality hired him as an engineer, entrusting him with the water supply works for the city. His activity quickly extended to urban planning and municipal works. For about 20 years, he proficiently ensured the leadership of the Technical Department of the Municipality, where he was responsible for numerous studies, projects and opinions (Paixão 2007).
- 6.
For reasons of coal economy, Pezerat recommended the acquisition of an engine from Alexander Hermanos from Barcelona, instead of a Cornish type (Pezerat 1855: 18).
- 7.
This procedure was developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the Scottish engineer Robert Thom (1774–1847) and was used in river waters for human consumption in the city of Paisley, before becoming generalized soon afterwards.
- 8.
Opinion report of the Municipality, cit. in Ramos (2011: 71).
- 9.
Carte chorographique des environs de Lisbonne dressé sous la direction de Charles Picquet à Paris, 1821 (Ribeiro 1857).
- 10.
This British citizen was a pioneer of Portuguese geology and the president of the Geological Society of London. He met Ribeiro during fieldworks conducted in the Carboniferous units of Buçaco for the company Farrobo & Damásio. His publications about the region of Lisbon included a coloured geological map and a stratigraphic setting with several Jurassic and Cretaceous series.
- 11.
Lisbon Academy of Sciences, individual process.
- 12.
The accuracy of Ribeiro’s geological observations was largely proven more than two decades later, when the first monograph by Choffat (1885) on the Cretaceous stratigraphy of Portugal was published, mostly with data yielded from the region of Lisbon.
- 13.
Its type of locality was in a tributary valley of the Carenque stream, crossed by drainage galleries later excavated under the direction of Ribeiro, where he also collected fossil plants that were studied by the Swiss paleobotanist Oswald Heer (1809–1883).
- 14.
Ribeiro also mentioned the scope for taking advantage of sources from the eastern quarter of the city, sources that were inferior in quality but drinkable, as had been previously suggested by Pezerat. The surplus water from these sources flowed freely into the Tagus River until 1868, when the Praia Elevatory Station, the first steam pumping station installed in Lisbon, entered into operation. This new station was able to pump about 1800 m3/day to the middle areas of the city (Bruno and Inácio 2014).
- 15.
An early example concerning the Lisbon water supply regards the Portuguese pioneer of hydraulic studies, Estevão Cabral (1734–1811), who pointed out the need to end the aqueduct at the reservoir of “Mãe de Água,” because the water did not arrive “clean” due to the absence of a tank that could provide for the sedimentation of the suspended matter, by which it would be “purifying itself.” He believed that the dissolved salts could also precipitate there, instead of inside of the pipes, where they caused serious damage to the runoff (Cabral 1791).
- 16.
Attached to Ribeiro’s (1857) report, there is an extensive inventory of the fountains, wells and other water sources of Lisbon, which support his conclusions.
- 17.
The physician Bernardino Gomes, a notable figure in Portuguese medicine in the nineteenth century, recommended that his patients consume water from one of these fountain systems, El-Rei, instead of the water arriving via the aqueduct (Ribeiro 1867: 16). However, after being chemically and bacteriologically analysed in 1890, the “eastern waters” were classified as being of mediocre quality, considering their high mineral content, as well as their contamination with colibacilli, possibly due to poorly constructed sewers. Its consumption had been abandoned by the 1930s (Companhia … 1900).
- 18.
In the Portuguese cities of Coimbra and Oporto, waters from the Mondego, Douro and Sousa Rivers were already in use for public supply.
- 19.
In February 1864, the water from the Aqueduct was reported as 16 °C on the hydrotimeter, with 0.293 g/l of residuals (Ribeiro 1867: 43).
- 20.
After 1935, the Company reinforced the Lisbon supply with several underground water holes drilled into the Tagus River alluviums (naturally filtered waters) on the sites studied by Ribeiro.
- 21.
By 1868, Lisbon was served by several private wells and cisterns, 26 springs and 97 water spouts supplied by the aqueducts and scattered across various points of Lisbon, of which 48 were used by 3129 water carriers and 40 by private customers, with 9 reserved for the filling of barrels (Ferreira 1981: 130).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the IHC (Institute for Contemporary History, NOVA University of Lisbon) and CITEUC (Centre for Research of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Coimbra) for their institutional support of this research. We are also grateful to Ana Duarte, Ana Simão and Bárbara Bruno for their precious suggestions, as well as to Pedro Inácio for his photographs.
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Brandão, J.M., Callapez, P.M. (2020). Engineering, Geology and the Water Supply to Lisbon in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century. Expertise and Innovation. In: Duarte Rodrigues, A., Toribio Marín, C. (eds) The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula. Trends in the History of Science. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34061-2_6
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